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Dear all,

We would like to inform you about a session that will be held during the 22nd
annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (31st of
August – 4th of September 2016, Vilnius, Lithuania).

*Call for Papers:*

Food choice and alimentary practices: from meals to diet and from site to
region – the difficulties and benefits of examinations of diet and dietary
practices.

*Introduction: *

The development of cooking and food preparation practices transform raw
ingredients into edible food. This transformation is not only chemical, but
also cultural. It forms part of what the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss
suggested that sets humans apart from apes and makes us a “cooking
animal” (1964;
*Le Cru et le cuit*).These complex actions (cooking and cultural
assimilation) may take two forms, those which leave traces to be found in
the archaeological deposits and those actions which may leave no physical
trace in the archaeological record.

When examining preserved food remains on a supranational level (crossing
two or more current national boundaries) the environmental record within
Europe has facilitated some successful studies for some regions and periods
(Livarda and van der Veen 2008; van der Veen, Livarda and Hill 2008). The
evidence of preparation techniques such as traces of knives, hearths and
grindstones, is supported by the remains of flora and fauna that are
indicative of food choice and alimentary practices. Later, from the
historic period onwards, we have textual documents which can add much
detail in the form of economic documents, recipes, and personal
observations on the context of food consumption.

But to what extent are these practices limited to different periods,
cultures, peoples and places? And to what extent do modern political
boundaries, differences in philosophical or methodological approaches to
archaeological remains limit our ability to create pan-European narratives
on the nature of human food use from different periods?

This session aims to explore how food choice and alimentary practices in
Europe changed through time, but also how these changes may be linked to
culture, technological innovations, shifting borders and the rise and fall
of civilizations. The session organizers encourage researchers who have
successfully studied different cultures or periods, passing existing
cultural or political borders (e.g. including material from two or more
different cultures or European countries) or comparing rural environments
to towns to submit a proposal, as well as those researchers who have
encountered difficulties when trying to operate projects which cross
cultural or political boundaries.


*Possible research topics to address:*
- What food types are ‘invisible’ in the environmental record, and what can
we do to address this?

- Dictated changes in crop cultivation in regions under foreign occupation

- The effect of famine on the choices of crop cultivation

- Reconstructed food distribution routes

- Trends in food and medicine

- The assimilation of “new” or “exotic” foods in periods with large
migrations

- Town and rural hinterland relationships

- The influence of the “culinary revolution”, the import of overseas
products in the 17th and 18th century, on the European city diet.

- The industrial revolution and its impact on the nature of food production.


*Practical information:*

The organization welcomes papers in English. Candidates are invited to
submit a title and abstract of 300 words maximum before February 15th 2016.
The abstract, accompanied by the affiliation and address data of the
candidate, can be uploaded via the registration system for papers/posters
at the conference website: http://eaavilnius2016.lt/.

Candidates will be informed regarding the acceptance of their proposals by
the 15th of March.


*Session organizers:*

*Dr. Julian Wiethold*, Institute national de recherches archéologiques
preventives (Inrap), Direction interrégionale Grand Est nord, Laboratoire
archéobotaniques, 12, rue de Méric, F-57063 Metz cedex 2

*Don O’Meara*, Durham University, Dawson Building, Department of
Archaeology, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE

*Merit Hondelink*, MA, Archeodienst Noord bv, Osloweg 95, 9723 BK Groningen